Ravenous
by Jameson Rook
Summary: "The bullet and the blood came from those you love.   Friendly fire, death by a liar." Warnings: Deals with Schizophrenia, dark situations, multiple character deaths, swearing.


_** This is something that popped into my head while I was researching something for my new book. I would like to caution all of you that there is, in fact, a couple more mature themes in this, though I am going to be rating it T. **_

_** Warnings: deals with Schizophrenia, harsh language, multiple character death, and dark situations.**_

_** Disclaimer: Castle and all of its characters belong to Andrew W. Marlowe and ABC Productions. The title and lyrics are from "Now Is The Time (Ravenous)" by 10 Years.**_

**"The bullet and the blood came from those you love.**

**Friendly fire, death by a liar." **

Blood. That was the first thing that overwhelmed Javier Esposito's senses when he walked into the darkened warehouse. The smell, metallic and musty, flared through his nostrils and churned his stomach, but he remained composed and moved quickly past the metal containers that were stacked to the ceiling. His muscles and heart pounded as he ran faster.

His heart nearly stopped in his chest when he entered the back room of the warehouse and found Ryan crouched over what was left of a body, his gun clenched in one blood stained hand. The drying blood on his face and hands had darkened to a sickly black color and marred the otherwise ivory skin.

"K-Kevin, what are you doin', bro?" Esposito's voice wavered as he spoke, not exactly sure that he wanted to know the answer. The scene was horrifying and twisted, and nothing that he would expect from the man that he considered his best friend.

"He wanted this, Javier. He _wanted_ me to kill him. They told me." His voice was full of ice and gravel as he spoke, his eyes fixatated on where he was absently drawing patterns in the still warm blood. "Can you hear them? They won't stop yelling. Make them stop, Javi. Make them _stop_." He growled, his ragged nails digging into the cement floor.

"Who, Kevin? Make _who_ stop?" He stepped closer and Kevin sprung to his feet, his gun pointed at Esposito's chest, the weapon shaking slightly.

"Stop. Don't come any closer. You want to put me in jail. I won't go. You can't make me, Esposito. You _can't! _I'm your partner!" His voice cracked and quivered as he spoke, his blue eyes flaming into Esposito's.

"You can't keep running from this, Ryan." He stepped closer once again. "Come with me, Kevin. Please?" Esposito glanced around him and stared a moment at the body of what had once been Richard Castle. "You _killed_ Castle. Why'd you do it?"

"I told you, they told me that he wanted me to kill him. They said that you want to be next. Why would you do that to me, Javier? Why would you make me kill you?" Esposito felt his heart rate pick up as he took a subtle step closer.

"I don't want you to kill me, Ryan. They're lying to you. Don't listen, okay? I'm your friend. Your partner. Listen to me. Do you trust me?"

"They don't lie. You're lying. Why would you lie to me?" He snarled, clutching his gun tighter in his hands and raising the barrel until it was even with the spot between Esposito's eyes. The look on Ryan's face had turned from concerned and hurt to agitated and vicious. "You're supposed to be my best friend." A scorching, angry tear slide down his cheek as he slid his finger inside the trigger guard, the rough lines of his finger print brushing over the cool metal of the trigger.

"Ryan, please don't-."

"No. No more excuses. I have to do this. You want this, I promise you do. You may not see it now, but they are never wrong. Good bye, Javier."

The gun shot was deafening in the silence of the warehouse, the bitter smell of gun powder filling the air and the echo of the bullet resonating. His body fell to the ground in slow motion before connecting with the blood slicked cement.

_** Thirty Six Hours Earlier**_

__The odd behavior had started as small things, nothing that anyone would really pay too much attention to if they weren't looking. A mumbled conversation under his breath while he was making coffee, a small jerk of his head as if he was looking at something that no one else saw. Eposito had even caught him havin, what looked like, a very intense staring contest with his stapler while they'd been doing paperwork but he'd brushed it off as too many hours without enough sleep.

Then, things started getting even more strange. Esposito had overheard him in the records room, shouting rather heatedly at the top of a filing cabinet. He'd almost stopped in and asked him if something was wrong, but it seemed like a bad time.

He had emerged from the room nearly twenty minutes later, red faced and his chest heaving. He was on the phone with Jenny by the time that he returned to his desk.

"No, Jen, I understand. Just call the insurance company and see if they can get it sorted out. I'm sure that I'll be fine without them for a few days. Okay. Yeah, I love you too, honey. I'll see you after work." He clicked the phone off and settled into his chair with a sigh before glancing over at Esposito's curious expression.

"Trouble in paradise, bro?"

"Naw, just issues with the damned insurance company. Jenny got to the pharmacy and they wouldn't let her pick any of our medications up without a new insurance card. That's what I hate about January. All the damn insurance companies take until about August to get their acts together." He chuckled, powering up his computer and getting to work on his paperwork.

"So," Esposito muttered after a few moments of silence. "What is it that you told Jenny you could go without for a few days?" Ryan's face drained of all color and he suddenly seemed incredibly nervous.

"Oh, you know, just some...heart burn medication and my migraine pills." He stammered, tugging on the collar of his shirt absently. Esposito eyed him a moment cautiously before heading towards the break room and refilling both of their coffee mugs. He set the cup down on Ryan's desk and settled back into his rolling chair, reclining slightly and crossing his arms behind his head.

"You know, I really am enjoying this lag in cases that we've had lately. It's good to finally get a break." He glanced over at Ryan who was eagerly nodding his agreement.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if we have to go to one more case in this cold, Beckett is going to smother Castle in a snow bank." Ryan laughed, glancing over to where their partners were arguing animatedly in the break room over, what looked like, a coffee mug. "He's been on her nerves even more that usual lately."

"I noticed that too. He better be careful if he knows what's good for him." Esposito laughed, running a hand over his close cropped hair. The men fell into a companionable silence for the rest of their shift, the hours ticking by slowly until the clock hit five and the team said their good nights.

Esposito kicked his feet up on the table and took a long drink from the longneck bottle in his hand, clicking on his television and flicking the channel to the Yankees-Red Sox game. He grumbled his distaste when he saw that the Red Sox were ahead by three runs, but resolved to keep his faith. After all, it was only the sixth inning. He watched the men on the screen running bases and tracked the small, pixelated baseball for almost an hour before his eyes drooped shut and he began snoring softly, the beer bottle rolling out of his palm and clattering to the floor.

The ringing of his cellphone roused him slowly from his sleep some time around one in the morning. He felt the side table blinding for the offending noise, the television blaring in the background and his still closed eyes making it something of a difficult task. Finally, he closed his hand around the ringing and vibrating object, clicked 'accept' and pressed the phone to his ear.

"Esposito." He murmured quietly.

"Ryan's gone." Jenny's voice was even and low, but Esposito could hear the fear and concern laced through her words still. He sat up quickly, something about her tone snapping him awake quickly.

"What do you mean he's gone, Jen? Where did he go?"

"I don't know, Javi. We were watching a movie, he went to the kitchen for something, I heard him yelling, and I went in to see what was wrong. When I got in there, he was yelling at the carton of milk. He was saying something about 'he doesn't want that, I know him better', but he stopped when I walked into the room, then he took off out the door. I tried to find him, but I have no idea where he could have gone." She sounded as though she'd been crying.

"Did he hurt you?" Esposito felt a bitter, stinging taste of the words on his tongue as he asked the question, but he needed to know.

"God, no. Of course not, Kevin would never do that. It's just that, without his medication in him, I don't know what he is capable of." She whispered and Esposito could just picture her pacing their intricately designed carpet and pinching the bridge of her nose.

"His medication? He said that the only medication that you couldn't get was heart burn and migraine medication."

"He did? He doesn't take either of those." Jenny took a deep shuddering breath. "Kevin has paranoid Schizophrenia. Without his medication he's dangerous, Javier."

"Sch...Schizophrenia? Jen, how the hell did he even get on the force with that diagnosis?" Esposito had been fumbling around the bedroom and tugged his clothes on and was half way down the stairs to his car before Jenny answered him.

"He didn't tell them, I don't know exactly how he went about hiding it from them for so long, but he did. We've got to find him." She sounded genuinely scared, and it broke his heart to hear her like that.

"We will, Jen. I promise. I'm on my way to your apartment now. I'll see you in ten minutes. Lock the door." He slid the phone into his pocket and hopped into the his car, flipping the ignition and hearing the engine roar to life.

He sped through the streets that were mostly empty. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he waited through a red light that seemed to take forever. He even contemplated popping the gumball onto the roof and just blowing through all of the lights, but he wasn't quite comfortable with that abuse of power.

As soon as the light turned green he punched the accelerator and raced through the last few minutes of the drive to Kevin and Jenny's apartment. The car lurched as he threw it in park and killed the engine, running up the stairs. His phone started ringing just before he reached Jenny's door.

"Esposito."

"It's Beckett. Alexis just called me. Ryan just went to the loft and dragged Castle down the hallway and they disappeared. She said that he was whispering something about 'this is what he wants'. What the hell is going on, Javi?" She growled. Esposito pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, leaning against the wall next to their door.

"He has..." He paused. "Ryan has Schizophrenia, Kate. The insurance company screwed him and Jenny over, and he hasn't been able to pick up his medication. Jenny just called me because he stormed out of her after yelling at something in the kitchen. We've got to find him."

"I'll call the guys in the tracking division and see if they can ping his cell. I'll call you back when I hear from them." The line went dead and Esposito heaved a sigh before knocking on the door. "Jenny, its me, open the door." He called. It took half a second before the door creaked open and her nervous eyes glanced out at him. He gave her a half-hearted smile and she allowed him to come inside.

Her eyes were red and puffy from tears, her arms wrapped around her body. Javier glanced around the apartment a moment, his breath catching at the sight of a hole punched in the drywall near the kitchen. He pulled Jenny into a hug, his arms tightening around her shoulders.

"Beckett just called. Kevin went to the loft. He has Castle, Jen." Jenny pulled out of the hug and stared at him, her mouth agape.

"He did _what_?" She snapped, her eyes burning with rage.

"He took him somewhere, we don't know where he is. Beckett has the tracking division at the precinct pinging his phone. We've got to find Castle...I don't know what Ryan is going to do to him if we don't." An awkward silence stretched out between them before his phone ringing filled the room. "Beckett, please tell me that you've got an address." He said instead of a normal greeting.

"Yeah, he's at that old warehouse that we investigated a few months back. Remember?"

"Yeah, I know the place, I'll meet you there." He ended the call and hugged Jenny tightly once again before heading back towards the door. "We've got his address. I'll call you when we get everything figured out, Jen. Lock the door behind me." He shut the door and bounded down the stairs to his car again, tearing off into the deathly silent night.

The warehouse loomed ominously against the back drop of the city, his hands gripped the wheel so tightly that he thought he was going to snap the wheel in half. His cruiser skidded to a stop in front of the warehouse and he glanced around, but Beckett was no where to be found.

He jittered in anticipation before deciding to move forward without her. He crept out of the car and slid along the front of the warehouse quietly. He pressed the door open gently, peeking into the darkness, and looking for Ryan. When he saw nothing, he took a deep breath and slipped into the warehouse.

Blood. That was the first thing that overwhelmed Javier Esposito's senses when he walked into the darkened warehouse. The smell, metallic and musty, flared through his nostrils and churned his stomach, but he remained composed and moved quickly past the metal containers that were stacked to the ceiling. His muscles and heart pounded as he ran faster.

His heart nearly stopped in his chest when he entered the back room of the warehouse and found Ryan crouched over what was left of a body, his gun clenched in one blood stained hand. The drying blood on his face and hands had darkened to a sickly black color and marred the otherwise ivory skin.

"K-Kevin, what are you doin', bro?" Esposito's voice wavered as he spoke, not exactly sure that he wanted to know the answer. The scene was horrifying and twisted, and nothing that he would expect from the man that he considered his best friend.

"He wanted this, Javier. He _wanted_ me to kill him. They told me." His voice was full of ice and gravel as he spoke, his eyes fixatated on where he was absently drawing patterns in the still warm blood. "Can you hear them? They won't stop yelling. Make them stop, Javi. Make them _stop_." He growled, his ragged nails digging into the cement floor.

"Who, Kevin? Make _who_ stop?" He stepped closer and Kevin sprung to his feet, his gun pointed at Esposito's chest, the weapon shaking slightly.

"Stop. Don't come any closer. You want to put me in jail. I won't go. You can't make me, Esposito. You _can't! _I'm your partner!" His voice cracked and quivered as he spoke, his blue eyes flaming into Esposito's.

"You can't keep running from this, Ryan." He stepped closer once again. "Come with me, Kevin. Please?" Esposito glanced around him and stared a moment at the body of what had once been Richard Castle. "You _killed_ Castle. Why'd you do it?"

"I told you, they told me that he wanted me to kill him. They said that you want to be next. Why would you do that to me, Javier? Why would you make me kill you?" Esposito felt his heart rate pick up as he took a subtle step closer.

"I don't want you to kill me, Ryan. They're lying to you. Don't listen, okay? I'm your friend. Your partner. Listen to me. Do you trust me?"

"They don't lie. You're lying. Why would you lie to me?" He snarled, clutching his gun tighter in his hands and raising the barrel until it was even with the spot between Esposito's eyes. The look on Ryan's face had turned from concerned and hurt to agitated and vicious. "You're supposed to be my best friend." A scorching, angry tear slide down his cheek as he slid his finger inside the trigger guard, the rough lines of his finger print brushing over the cool metal of the trigger.

"Ryan, please don't-."

"No. No more excuses. I have to do this. You want this, I promise you do. You may not see it now, but they are never wrong. Good bye, Javier."

The gun shot was deafening in the silence of the warehouse, the bitter smell of gun powder filling the air and the echo of the bullet resonating. His body fell to the ground in slow motion before connecting with the blood slicked cement.

Esposito quivered as he watched Ryan's body twitch, he bolted across the warehouse floor and picked Kevin's head up into his lap.

"Kev, come on, bro. Hang in there. Okay?" His voice was low and tinged with fear as he pressed his hand over the gaping wound in Ryan's chest. A hot tear slipped out over Esposito's cheek as he watched Kevin struggling for breaths. Ryan grabbed his hand, his eyes wide with fear and pain.

"It h-hurts, Espo. It hurts so b-bad." He whimpered. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do any of this. Tell B-Beckett that I didn't mean to kill him."

"You tell her yourself, bro. You're going to be fine." Ryan choked out a laugh, black blood tinging his teeth.

"You know that's not true." He whispered. His hand rested on the side of Esposito's face. "There's good news."

"What's that?" He sniffled.

"They finally stopped talking. It's quiet. Thank you, bro. For being there until the wheels fall off." Esposito nodded shakily.

"Anytime, bro." Ryan smiled and his eyes slipped closed. Esposito checked for a pulse, but found none, and stood slowly, turning to face Beckett who was still standing in the doorway, her gun smoking and her hands shaking in front of her. She peeked around Esposito and saw Ryan and Castle laying in the pools of blood. Her breath caught in her throat and she moved to the corner next to her, her stomach protesting the sight and emptying its contents.

Eposito took a deep, shuddering breath, closed his eyes and couldn't help but smile for a moment. Even though two of his best friends were laying on the floor behind him, it was truly silent. They were quiet, and he could rest easy knowing that the ravenous voices were no longer taunting his brother. For now, that would have to be enough to comfort him. The grieving would come later, but for now, he was happy for Kevin.


End file.
